Good morning. Verizon’s $4.5 billion acquisition of Yahoo is expected to close as soon as today, almost a year after the deal was first announced. Then we will get to see whether a combination of two former dot-com titans, with the added support of a telco and all its first-party data, will be a strong-enough offering to shore up the gap between Google and Facebook and the rest of the online ad market. AT&T and Time Warner will be watching very closely.

Snap Open for Business

Snapchat has made it a lot easier for small businesses to buy and create ads on the app, Adweek reports. Advertisers big and small now can buy Snapchat ads directly from its website using their credit cards, with no minimum spend. There’s also a new tool to help advertisers create mobile video ads themselves. Elsewhere, as part of Snap’s Cannes preamble, the company launched a Certified Partners Program, which will see third-party agencies get Snapchat-qualified and then give hands-on training and support to marketers. The pace of ad product launches has increased substantially since Snap’s IPO. By using outside help, the company can ensure its advertisers feel looked after and duly informed even though Snap doesn’t have as large a workforce as its biggest rivals. (Facebook, incidentally, has its own agency certification program called Blueprint.)

In the Infowars

The three big trends of 2017: fidget spinners, male rompers and brands pulling their ads from undesirable content. CMO Today’s Suzanne Vranica reports that J.P. Morgan is suspending advertising on NBC news programming until after the network airs anchor Megyn Kelly’s interview with right-wing rabble-rouser Alex Jones on Sunday. J.P. Morgan CMO Kristin Lemkau tweeted that she was “repulsed” Ms. Kelly would give airtime to “someone who says Sandy Hook and Aurora are hoaxes.” Mr. Jones has since said that he thinks Sandy Hook happened but that there were anomalies about the event -- and even he’s complaining about the interview, which he called a “hit piece” and said he doesn’t want it to air Sunday. No other advertisers have come out publicly against the planned episode, which is unusual considering: 1) the social-media-outrage machine is spinning into overdrive and 2) the current climate of zero tolerance from marketers once that machine revs into gear.

Like and Subscribe

Facebook is building a feature that will allow users to subscribe to news publications directly from the mobile app, The Wall Street Journal reports. Lots of publishers rely heavily on Facebook to drive traffic to their websites, but they have also grown increasingly frustrated at the social network’s dominance of the digital ad market, which affects their ability to make money from their content. An interesting nugget from the story: Facebook initially planned to offer a subscription option in its Instant Articles product, but it scrapped the idea before launch because it slowed down load times. Since then, some publishers have found Instant Articles isn’t as lucrative as they thought it’d be, and they’re experimenting with similar distribution services from the likes of Apple (which allows publishers to sell subscriptions) and Google (which appears to punish paywall publishers, like The Wall Street Journal, in its search results). It looks as if the new tool could be a peace offering—Facebook is running a test to squeeze more ads into Instant Articles, too—to get disillusioned publishers fully back on board.

Best of the rest

Burger King’s new CEO, Daniel Schwartz, spoke about his efforts to turn around the business through cutting costs, reducing the menu and opening new restaurants. [Business Insider]

Facebook launched two optimization tools to help advertisers serve ads to the people most likely to spend money on their products. [CMO Today]

CONTENT FROM OUR SPONSOR

Next week’s World Economic Forum is expected to spark new ideas and collaborations, particularly around Industry 4.0, the convergence of physical and digital technologies. Punit Renjen, Deloitte Global CEO, will discuss Deloitte’s “2019 Industry 4.0 Readiness Report,” the second annual survey of global business leaders covering their views on the challenges and opportunities of Industry 4.0. The report also offers insights into the personas of executives who are navigating it well. Next week is all about the World Economic Forum and Industry 4.0 on Deloitte Insights in CMO Today. Coming on Tuesday: “What It Takes to Lead in Industry 4.0.”

Please note: The Wall Street Journal News Department was not involved in the creation of the content above.